You know what I don't usually say after watching Supernatural? What a lovely episode.

So... what a lovely episode. Yes, it was a typical monster of the week, but it had an interesting narrative twist. As in, can you believe they introduced two cool female characters, and both of them lived?

I really enjoyed Dee Wallace's performance as Mildred. When you have a much older woman hitting on a young man, it's usually played for laughs or groans or both, like Gert constantly groping Sam in "Red Sky at Morning." Here, Mildred's verbal passes at Dean were gently folded into a more serious ongoing discussion between the brothers about their chances of growing old and retiring themselves some day. And how about how Dean responded to Mildred? He wasn't offended or put off at all. He was flattered, and even possibly interested. Of course, Mildred may have been seventy-ish but she was also beautiful and a lot of fun. I loved the little Dean/Mildred moment in front of the (metaphorical) sunset where she told him to follow his heart.

It was also nice to see Sam connect with Eileen Leahy, another legacy Men of Letters hunter tracking the banshee in order to avenge her parents. And how cool was it that she was deaf? And that she and Mildred managed to defeat the banshee and save Dean and Sam, not to mention (and I can't help emphasizing this point) survive the episode? Like Sam, Eileen decided on the hunting life instead of going to law school. I hope they bring her back and not kill her off a second time.

Although the banshee wasn't anything special to write home about in the vast and bizarre realm of Supernatural monsters (I did like her wriggling Medusa-like hair), Dean and Sam did make some emotional progress. They had a heart to heart while digging a grave, and Sam finally told Dean about how guilty he felt for leaving Dean in Purgatory.

But Dean did not tell Sam about his connection to Amara. He told Casifer, who dropped by the bunker to do some Amara research. (Which gave us Misha Collins doing Lucifer doing Castiel, of course.) The banshee was supposedly going after the most vulnerable, but she went after Dean instead of Mildred. And Mildred got the feeling that Dean was pining for someone. What does this mean, that Dean is vulnerable? Is he just longing for Amara to dump some bliss on him, or is it more serious than that?

At least Dean noticed that something was "off" about Castiel. Was it just that he was hanging out at the bunker without his trench coat on?

Bits and pieces:

— J and J are both exceptionally gorgeous and it's rarely mentioned, so I like it when it's mentioned. Mildred said the boys were too cute to be FBI agents. Has she ever seen The X-Files?

— The opener with the baby was probably intended to remind us of Amara.

— The collective wisdom is referring to Lucifer/Castiel as "Casifer," so I went with that. But frankly, I like Lustiel better. Or Luci-Cas.

— Shoshannah Stern (Eileen) is probably best known for Weeds and Jericho. Dee Wallace (Mildred) has been acting forever but is probably best known for E.T.

— This week: Oak Park in or near Lebanon, Kansas, and a flashback to thirty years ago in County Cork, Ireland. Dean and Sam were agents Osbourne and Butler.

— Did we get more old music than we usually do? "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," "Wonderful, Wonderful," "Prison Grove" and a reference to "Walking After Midnight." And "Into the Mystic" is a song by Van Morrison. (Lyrics here.)

Quotes:

Casifer: "I'm out of that awful, awful Cage and I'm here to save you all. Lucifer ex machina.”

Arthur: "My wife left me. Via text, if you can believe it. A whole series of emojis."
Dean: "Wow. What'd you do?"
Arthur: "Oh, I didn't stand for that. Fought fire with fire. Sent her the poop emoji."
Dean: "Well, that's one way to fly."

Sam: "Turns out Harold was stealing the other residents' Viagra."
Dean: "I know. It was a real dick move, huh?"
I so enjoyed Dean's smile when he came up with that one.

Dean: "So no retirement, huh?"
Sam: "Hey, you're the one who's always wanted to go out blaze of glory style, preferably while the Bon Jovi song is playing."
Dean: "I'm a candle in the wind."

Mildred: (signing) "I got dibs on the other guy. You can have the tall one. I'm not much of a mountain climber anymore."
Eileen: (signing) "You sure you don't want both?"
Does this mean the episode didn't pass the Bechdel test?

Dean: (watching the sunset) "It's not bad."
Mildred: "Not bad? Honey, it's almost as gorgeous as you are."

Dean: "Your hand is still on my knee."
Mildred: "I could move it up?"

Maybe not a classic, but an enjoyable MotW episode. Three out of four candles in the wind,

Billie
---Billie Doux has been reviewing Supernatural for so long that Dean and Sam Winchester feel like old friends. Courageous, adventurous, gorgeous old friends.

9 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I'm so in agreement with you here - it was a lovely episode. To me though Sam looked more vulnerable than Dean. Now, anyone in the ep looked more vunerable - the deaf girl with trust issues, the elderly lady (so cute, so lonely)... well,Luci in disguise didn't. On the contrary, he was so content with himself, probably thinking - wrongly- that he's totally safe which I'm sure he isn't.What did he look for in the bunker? The Book of Damned?

When I saw the baby, I didn't think of Amara but rather of Sam, a helpless, adorable innocent in his crib. (Perhaps this is because I haven't been watching since 2006; I binge-watched on Netflix a year or so ago, so the whole show happened much more quickly for me!)

My favorite is Luciel. I thought the Banshee was really well done. Robbie Thompson loves to write strong women in his scripts. I hope we see Mildred (who does have a ghost problem) and Eileen (as a descendant of a MOL's and a hunter she needs to explore the Bunker) in future episodes. They were awesome.The story was "lovely" wasn't it?

Finally catching up before the new season starts, and I'd have to agree that this was a "lovely" episode. No long-beloved characters died, nothing was terribly gruesome, and we met a couple of ladies who would be fun to have back sometime. I'd especially like to have Eileen back someday. It's always nice to see Shoshannah Stern on my screen, and as a MoL Legacy, she does deserve a tour of the bunker. I think the only possible complication to that would be, once she knows about it, you either have her use it as a base of operations too(it'd be what Dean would call a "dick move" not to let her use it like they do), or come up with a reason why she wouldn't want to. Dee Wallace is always a hoot, even if I can't help thinking of E.T. anytime I see her. :) It'd be a little trickier to justify a second appearance from her, though.

Misha Collins really does do a great Mark Pellegrino impression, doesn't he? :)